


Shadows in the Moonlight

by TheWalkingDebt



Category: That '70s Show
Genre: After "The Promise Ring", Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Gender Changes, Country Music, Crushes, Cute, Drugs, F/M, First Kiss, Fluff and Angst, Gender or Sex Swap, Love Confessions, Not Actually Unrequited Love, Post-Season/Series 03, Smoking, Swearing, female Steven Hyde, past Eric Forman/Donna Pinciotti
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-05-20
Updated: 2018-05-20
Packaged: 2019-05-09 13:43:05
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,552
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14717171
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TheWalkingDebt/pseuds/TheWalkingDebt
Summary: Sometimes, the one you think you need is just the one to pass the time.





	Shadows in the Moonlight

“Hey, Forman,” Eric looked up at the familiar husky voice of his best friend since childhood. Hyde looked at him with bright blue eyes, hidden behind rose-tinted glasses. “Wanna go for a drive?”

“Uh,” he looked at the pile of homework in front of him, then his friend’s face. “Sure.” Hyde never asked him out to drive. To be entirely honest, he couldn’t think of many times when Hyde asked him to hang out in the first place. They just sort of ended up naturally together, most days, and if not, it was by Eric’s instigation. He didn’t mind. Hyde needed alone time frequently, and Eric, being a good friend. accomodated those wishes easily.

“Great,” she grinned ear to ear, but it didn’t quite look natural for some reason. It seemed stretched; there were no teeth on show. “Need to get outta this dump every once in awhile, huh?” She spun around and headed out the driveway-side door. He heard her boots clattering up the steps as he set aside his work and stood, stretching. He grabbed his coat and headed out after his bushy-haired friend.

“You know this ‘dump’ is my house? The one you’re currently living in?” Eric sighed, buckling himself into the El Camino beside Hyde. She didn’t buckle; she never did, despite Eric’s consistent glares.

“Whatever, man,” she adjusted the rearview mirror with a frown. “Did you screw with this, Forman? I told you…”

“I had to back it out so I could get the Vista Cruiser out. Maybe don’t block the driveway next time?” Eric frowned at her, crossing his arms over his skinny chest. She glanced at him, sunglasses only partially barring her amused expression.

“Whatever,” Hyde repeated, shrugging her slim shoulders. Her denim jacket was rolled up to the elbows and baggy everywhere else, hiding her person. The men’s t-shirt she wore didn’t help the situation, but it wasn’t like she wore these clothes for the attention they got her. She wore them because they were comfortable.

“Where are we going?” he asked her after a long moment of silence.

She shrugged, slapping the radio with one blind but practiced hand, eyes still on the road.

_“You’re listening to 95.9, Durand’s number one country music station. Up next…"_

“Um, Hyde?” Eric glanced at his friend, confused. “This is the country station.” Hyde listened to loud guitar solos and rocky-voiced, long-haired singers - not sad-sap crooners on lap steel guitars.

“I know,” she responded shortly, cranking the volume just a little more, as if to tune him out.

 

> _We'll be shadows in the moonlight, darlin' I'll meet you at midnight._
> 
> _Hand and hand we'll go, dancin' through the Milky Way,_
> 
> _And we'll find a little hideaway where we can love the whole night away._
> 
> _We'll be shadows in the moonlight right up 'til the light of day._

 

“When did you start listening…”

“Shut up, Forman.”

 

> _Ooh the night is young and baby, so are we,_
> 
> _Glad, I'm gonna make you glad you came._
> 
> _Ooh, you won't need a thing._
> 
> _Just bring your love for me,_
> 
> _And darlin' I will do the same._

 

Eric couldn’t say anything, he’d just be shut up again, but he kept looking at this girl driving stick shift like it was second nature. Her eyebrows furrowed, sunglasses on despite the darkness of night, and her mind a thousand miles away. He’d be worried if Hyde wasn’t the best driver in their group of friends, and even after a night of drinking, she’d be able to pass any cop’s sobriety tests. Well, aside from a breathalyzer.

He was worried, however, about how weird she was acting. Usually if she was upset, she’d be drinking or smoking right about now. Not driving. Certainly not with Eric. The whole point of those glasses was so that no one could see her mind working behind her face, a physical shield to block _feelings_ from getting out. She would never bring him along on an emotional tailspin.

After driving for twenty minutes, and the first commercial break started, Hyde finally removed her sunglasses, tucking them up in the blonde curly mess that was her hair. She kept talking about cutting it short, but it currently went just past her shoulders. Eric didn’t think he knew another girl with such bushy hair. Donna had long flat orange locks, and it was so silky when he ran his hands through it… he bit back the thought, pained. He couldn’t think about Donna. Not tonight. Not for awhile.

Jackie and Laurie both had wavy hair, made so artificially by hot rollers, and he only knew that from one too many overheard conversations.

Hyde, though, he knew was all natural. She woke up in the morning and came straight upstairs for coffee, hair a total bird’s nest, but tightly curled. She went to sleep without even showering some nights, just falling straight into bed, and he knew this from staying up too late many summer nights watching TV and playing games. She didn't do much of anything with hair or makeup, not to Eric's memory.

Hyde wasn’t a people person, to the extreme - where she didn’t even seem to know what people expected from her. Of course, she obviously did; she wasn’t stupid. She was probably the cleverest in their group, actually. _Is cleverest a word?_ His mind trailed for a second before he shook it back to the original thought.

The point was, Hyde never followed through on expectations. Hell, most the time people met her, they just thought she was a short guy. Her body wasn’t curvy, like Jackie or Laurie’s, it was flat-chested and square. Her shoulders were a bit broad, her forearms wiry, her face sharp and androgynous. Especially with the glasses on. Even her voice was a husky baritone.

Eric thought she preferred it that way, keeping people guessing, making everyone question her as much as she questioned everything else. What he knew she didn’t like, though, was people voicing their assumptions. She had punched a guy in the face for calling her a dyke, smiling widely.

“It’s not that I don’t like dick, I just have standards,” she sneered, storming away.

Honestly, seeing that had made Eric a little… flustered. He had never really thought of Hyde as a girl up until that point. They were thirteen, going on fourteen, and Hyde had always been ‘one of the guys’. She was more masculine than Eric, most days. She could take a car apart and put it back together in a day; her idea of fun was racing dirt bikes and throwing mud at each other. She fought and wrestled as well, or even better, than Eric or Kelso. She was the official spider killer in the basement.

But in that moment, defending what remained of her femininity, Eric realized there was a girl underneath all that harsh bravado.

And she was _hot._

But Hyde never seemed interested in anyone, much less Forman. She mocked him senselessly most days, never resisting the urge to burn him, and taking advantage of every opportunity to laugh at his misfortune. To be fair, that was just sort of how their friendship went, though.

And, of course, Donna had been there. Donna, with her exotic red hair and piercing hazel eyes, and her smile. She had this gorgeous smile… Eric had been in love with her since childhood. He knew that. He still loved her, probably always would, and that ached inside of him like a boulder crushing his lungs.

So, yeah, he had a small crush on Hyde for about three or four years, but it was nothing when compared to how long he had loved Donna, right?

“Spaceman,” Hyde snapped her fingers in front of his face, scowling. “You there? Major Tom?”

“Ground control, huh?” Eric blinked, remembering where he was.

“Moron,” Hyde snorted to herself, pulling the car over. “I need a smoke.” The car rolled onto gravel with a pleasant grinding sound. She put the stick in neutral, released the clutch, and hit the emergency brake. “Don’t let the car roll away, alright, spaz?” She got out of the car, cigarettes in hand.

Eric hesitated a moment before getting out of the car as well, throwing it into gear just to make sure it didn’t slide away even on the flat road. Hyde was leaning against the hood of her car, a lit fag already between her fingers and in her mouth. Eric watched her lips circle the filter thoughtfully, eyebrows furrowed. Now that her glasses were off, her hands shook. He noticed the way her digits trembled, holding the cigarette. The other hand was stuffed into her pocket, and her jaw was set tightly.

“Are you okay, Hyde?” he reached out to touch her shoulder, and she flinched away.

“Me? I’m dandy,” she responded lightly, only the slightest hint of a crack in her voice, and she covered that with a small cough. The filmy grey plume of smoke left through her lips and a little out her nose, like a dragon. A petite, curly-haired dragon, with mild alcoholism and a severe case of paranoia.

Eric tried not to chuckle at the image that brought forth.

“Uh huh, which is why we’re out in the middle of nowhere at ten o’clock on a Thursday night, so you can smoke,” Eric sidled a little closer, fists clenched in the pockets of his jacket. “So, I’m gonna ask again. You alright?”

“I’m _fine,”_ her voice was sharp and hurt. “God, Forman. Wouldn’t’ve brought you if I knew you were gonna yak the night away.”

He was quiet a moment, but he had long learned the language of Stephanie J. Hyde. ‘Fine’ was actually an acronym for ‘fucked up, insecure, needy, and emotional’. Meanwhile, ‘shut up Forman’ usually meant ‘you’re getting too close to me, step off before I say something I regret’. But sometimes it meant exactly what she was saying.

He never knew what to do in these moments with Donna. Donna would say things that obviously had ulterior meanings, but he preferred to think she’d be straight with him. At least, he had been. On the other hand, he already knew Hyde had three layers of who-knew-what beneath her surface, let alone her words. He had long learned to question everything and read her face, her words, her tone.

“Are _you_ okay?” Hyde muttered, lips screwing up as she realized what came out of her mouth. Actual, genuine concern. Eric tried not to laugh at how annoyed she was with herself in that moment. “Y’know, cuz Donna broke your stupid heart and all.”

“Right, yeah, you drove me out here to ask about my feelings,” Eric chuckled into the stiff breeze. It wasn’t quite cold out, even though it was night, but when the wind came along it brought a slight chill. He noticed that Hyde was wearing a t-shirt but the coat had been abandoned in the car. He wondered if she was cold. Not like she’d say anything if she were.

“No, but you seem like you wanna talk, so,” Hyde toed the ground with her boot tip, creating a crunch of gravel to pay attention to. She breathed in another noxious mouthful of smoke, the grey fog lit by flickering street lamps. “I’m just… having a bad night.”

She flinched at the admission, but she didn’t take it back. Didn’t stutter. Didn’t even look at him, in fact. She stared off somewhere into the middle ground, like the trees on this side of the highway held answers to forgotten secrets.

“I’m… doing better,” Eric decided to let her forget she had said that last part at all. His favor to her, for bothering to listen to him whine about Donna again. Hyde's shoulders relaxed once more, and he knew he had made the right choice. “I think we’re both just… we need time to figure out ourselves before we… I mean, maybe we’ll try again during college? Who knows.” He sighed. “Maybe we weren’t meant to be like I thought.”

Hyde was quiet for a long moment, “Meant to be,” she finally snickered, cigarette bouncing on her thin bottom lip. “You’re such a freaking girl, Forman.”

“Well, someone had to be in that relationship,” Eric joked idly at his own expense. Hyde’s laughter filled him with warmth, and he looked over to see her grin, wide and real this time.

“Sacrificial self-burn, Forman, excellent,” Hyde complimented almost sarcastically. “What, so now it’s over, you realize Donna was too much man for you?” her blue eyes glittered mischievously up at him. “Tell me the truth, did she give it to you?” Hyde made a dirty gesture no girl should do, causing Eric to simultaneously crack up with surprised laughter and shock. Then again, he shouldn’t really be surprised. Hyde defied all expectations gleefully.

“Man, seriously?” Eric shook his head, sighing into the night. “It’s over. That’s all. And… I think I could get over her, given time. I just… I’ve been in love with her for years.”

“I know that,” Hyde’s voice went quiet and… maybe a little bitter? Eric glanced at her, but her face revealed nothing, even without her protective eyewear. “I mean, damn, we all knew that. Who else for Eric Forman, wonder-blunder kid, but Donna Man-ciotti?” Hyde’s voice became sharp and caustic for indiscernible reasons. “Classic neighbor girl/boy story. Who wouldn’t love it?”

Her cigarette was running low, but Hyde smoked until her fingertips burnt. She didn’t seem to feel the pain much anymore, throwing down the butt only when she was good and ready. Eric watched the soft glow of the cancer stick reach that critical moment. He was close to smacking it out of her hands, from a mixture of annoyance that she was addicted to such a small, deadly object and to save her thin fingers and paperwhite skin from further abuse.

“I’m guessing you didn’t,” Eric said softly, frowning a little. Hyde froze, her whole body stiffening as if in a cold breeze that Eric didn’t feel, then she rolled her shoulders and regained her composure.

“She was a bitch,” Hyde finally responded stiffly, hissing as the enkindled tip finally touched her skin. She threw the fag down and ground it into the rocks. “Hot, but a bitch nonetheless.”

“I thought you said that was a compliment?” Eric recalled a conversation about that subject long ago, but he wondered where on earth this was coming from. Although Hyde hadn’t been as close of friends with Donna as Eric had, they all did sort of grow up together. The shorter girl had never given any signs of dislike toward the willowy redhead.

“The meaning of a word depends drastically on context and situation,” Hyde muttered, tapping another cigarette from her battered box. There were three left. Eric swore she had just bought a new package the other day, and she never smoked this much.

He snatched the box from her hand without really thinking. Hyde turned crystalline eyes on him with bright anger.

“Give it back,” she demanded, voice not even raising a notch. Hyde didn’t yell. Too much of it in her own home, so she didn’t care for it. She just got dark and stormy.

“Didn’t you just buy these?” Eric asked, keeping them from her reach. Not that Hyde would jump or do tricks for them. She’d just snort, say ‘whatever’, and buy more when he wasn’t around. But right now, she looked ready to tear him to pieces to get back her smokes.

“ _No_ ,” her lies were too concrete, too determined, and that was how Eric knew she was lying. For all her street-rat skills, lying was not one of them, oddly enough.

“No,” he repeated back, tucking the box away inside his jacket. “Do you want to die of lung cancer?”

“Better than my other options,” she grumbled back, but she crossed her arms and fell back against her car. “Asshole.”

“Yeah, yeah I am,” Eric snorted faintly, putting himself beside her. She glanced up at him, then back out at the trees, glaring.

“Can’t believe I felt sorry for you,” she finally muttered.

“Sorry, wait, hold on, you _felt_? Omigosh, someone tell the local news, Stephanie Hyde had feelings!”

“You use that name again and I’ll gut you like a fish, Forman,” she threatened, fury in her throat and eyes. Glassy eyes. Eric stared at them in shock. He would never say something stupid like ‘you’re crying?’ but…

“You’re crying,” he reached out. She pulled her head away, shutting her eyes, and growling.

“No I’m not,” she snarled, but she pinched the bridge of her nose. Her hand went down to her sunglasses, but Eric stopped her from doing so. Her hand twitched under his before quickly falling to her side.

“Hey, I’m the one that got broken up with, I should be the one crying,” he went for a casual tone, a teasing tone, and received a volatile glare in response.

“Oh, please, you cry when animated parents die in Disney films,” Hyde dismissed, rubbing the inside corner of one eye with a deep breath before looking at him. “I saw you when _Bambi_ was on TV. You bawled like a baby.”

“I was six!”

“Baby,” she repeated, but a small smile finally came to her pink lips. He smiled a little back.

“We haven’t just hung out in awhile,” he mentioned casually. “Y’know. Just us.”

“Nope,” Hyde snapped the ‘p’ sound in her mouth like bubblegum. “Donna didn’t like it.”

“What?” Eric blinked at her, confused. This conversation was starting to give him whiplash, from bouncing around topics as deeply confusing as Donna to trading humorous but light barbs.

“She never said anything, but I felt it,” Hyde shrugged. “Funny, huh? And she always got all worked up when you were jealous. At least you were honest about your feelings.”

“Donna wasn’t jealous,” that just sounded odd in Eric’s mouth. What would Donna be jealous of Hyde for? It wasn’t like Hyde was any closer… well, okay, if he had to pick a best friend it would definitely be Hyde. And she did live in his basement… and they did hang out a lot together, especially if Donna wasn’t available… ah.

“She was _jealous_ …” Eric leaned back against the car, amazed, thinking of all the times Donna had slipped between the two of them. She was a hell of a lot more subtle than Eric was. Well, no surprises there, at least.

“See, this is why people think you’re the stupid one,” Hyde laughed, and the sound filled Eric with butterflies. He had gotten used to them awhile ago, but that didn’t make it any less awkward. He had a feeling friends weren’t supposed to do that sort of thing to your heart and stomach. But everything was different with Hyde. It always had been. “Never should have told her about the Circle. It got worse after that.”

“Wow, girls are sneaky,” Eric frowned to himself, crossing his arms.

“Why do you think I hang out with guys?” Hyde snorted. “Backstabbing bitches.” Her fingers twitched for something to do, jaw clicking side to side. “Look, Forman, I didn’t bring you out here to jaw about your ex.” She looked regretful the minute those words slipped out, but she didn’t take them back. She didn't usually take back anything she meant, and most things she said seriously, she meant.

“Is this about your ‘bad night’?” Eric asked, a little gently, trying not to make it seem like he pitied her or anything. That was the quickest way to get a punch to the shoulder, and Hyde punched hard. Worse than that, she wouldn't say a thing about whatever was bothering her, and she'd continue bottling it up until it burst.

Hyde pursed her lips, “...Yeah.” the word came out softer than anything that had ever left her mouth, surprising Eric. “Yeah, I guess so.”

She took a deep breath and held it for a long moment. Eric allowed the silence to fall, disinclined to scare her off at the last minute.

“She had a right to be jealous,” Hyde finally whispered, looking like she really wanted a cigarette in that second. Her eyes didn’t meet Eric’s, and her right hand trembled over her sunglasses, dying to put them on and shield herself from everything. Something stopped her, and so she only clutched at them nervously.

Eric wanted to ask what exactly that meant, heart racing in his chest. Did Hyde know? About this stupid meaningless crush? _Damn_. He knew he wasn’t exactly good at keeping things close to the chest, but this was one of the secrets he’d take to the grave. Hyde couldn’t know… couldn’t possibly realize…

“I hated her, when we were kids,” Hyde continued shakily, swallowing thickly, arms crossed tightly over her chest. “Especially when she got all…” she gestured oddly, unsure what to say. “Y’know. Jugs-a-poppin’.” Her laugh was a dry, sarcastic one that hardly met the requirements. “And people still thought I was a dude. Which was fine, mostly, I mean. Whatever.” She drew in a tight breath. “Until that dick, Ed… Ed Weiser, I think?”

“You punched him,” Eric remembered, grinning. “That was awesome.”

“Thanks,” Hyde snorted back, flicking a thumb over her top lip. “Everyone expected me to whore out because of my mom. When I didn’t, I got called a dyke. It’s a fucking two-edged sword, Forman.”

“I, I didn’t expect…”

“Well of course you didn’t,” Hyde shot him an exasperated look, but it had pain in it as well. “Look at your Norman Rockwell family. You just expect the girl to give up her entire life for you.”

“I…” Eric blinked back, astonished.

“Listen, Donna was never the one to settle down, she’s too… _butch_ for that,” Hyde shook her head, curls bouncing around her neck and shoulders. “Or something. I dunno. But she was never happy when she was still, always had something to prove. And look at her parents’ sham of a marriage, huh? For that matter, look at any of our parents. Face it, Forman, you got off luckiest here.”

“Kelso’s parents…” Eric started weakly.

“The ones he hardly sees?” Hyde cocked her right eyebrow high. “The ones that can never explain anything to him and have six others they pay less attention to? Yeah, they’re still together, but it’s not like they’re around.”

Eric fell silent, thinking about it. Thinking about everything Hyde was saying. He had a feeling she was avoiding a topic by discussing parents.

“What does this have to do…” he started, but Hyde wasn’t going to let him finish a single sentence tonight.

“I hated Donna because you loved her,” Hyde gritted her teeth, spitting out the words with venomous disdain. Whether it was for herself, Donna, or Eric, seemed unknowable. “I was jealous first.”

Eric wondered if the air was getting hotter, or if it was just him. He pulled on the collar of his shirt, sinking down against the car as he took in Hyde’s words. If they meant what he thought they meant… but they couldn’t.

“It wasn’t supposed to be her,” Hyde’s breath came in quick now, nervous, and strained. “I was the one… she was the one that hurt you. I fixed it. I was supposed to…” she bit her lip and held her chin high. Eric could see the silver glint of tear tracks silently sliding down her cheeks in the lamplight. “It should have been me.”

Eric’s heart stopped.

Her breath came out in a shudder, “And that’s why I’m having a bad night, Eric.”

She never said his first name. Never sounded so soft and vulnerable. Never…

She turned to get back in the car when he grabbed her by the wrist, pulling her back. He might look weak, but his muscles were all there, just well-hidden. Hyde had time to give him a surprised look before his lips met hers.

She melted instantly into the motion, eyes fluttering shut, and Eric thought how strange it was, and yet how natural it felt, to have her body pressed up against his. She was nothing like Donna. Donna who was his height, who never fit quite so smoothly with him, who took work to cuddle around. Hyde fell perfectly into the space of his chest and arms with no gaps. His hand hooked her waist, feeling the slim solid bone there, underneath the denim. The other slid into her hair, immediately tangled up by the bird’s nest that was Hyde’s hair. The kiss became desperate and hungry as she gripped his coat by the lapels and worked his mouth with her perfect tongue. The heels of her boots made it so she didn’t have to get on tiptoe, but had she been barefoot, Eric thought he could equal it out much like Kelso and Jackie did.

A bolt of lightning struck his core at the thought of pinning her to a wall and having his way.

Something he couldn’t have done with Donna. Something she never would have allowed anyways.

Finally, they separated, breathing hard to make up for the lack of oxygen, but Eric left himself pressed to Hyde. She was warm, like a throttled engine, and her heart raced in her chest still. He liked how he left her breathless.

“Huh,” Hyde grunted against him, licking her lips. “Donna teach you that?”

A twinge of annoyance shot through him at that, that she could still be mad at him for something he never knew he could have, but, again, he understood Hyde better than anyone. She’d prefer to ruin something good before someone else did it for her. Because, inevitably, everything broke in her life, and she couldn’t bear to let it just happen to her.

“And here I thought we were having a moment,” Eric teased lightly, but he didn’t let her escape his arms.

“Girl,” she shoved at his chest ineffectively, but he knew she was reserving her strength.

“You say that like it’s a bad thing,” Eric shrugged. “I like girls.” He paused, “I like _you_ , Hyde.”

He watched her jaw tighten up, her bright blue eyes staring back at him in the dark. “I’ve been reliably informed that I’m not one of those.” Eric winced at the memory, recalling how he had said Hyde was ‘barely a girl’ in one of his and Donna’s arguments. How had he not noticed Donna’s jealousy? Every fight somehow led back to Eric’s best friend being a girl.

“I was being stupid,” Eric shook his head. “I just wanted Donna off my back, and I said the first thing that came to mind.” _Which was a dumb and heartless thing to say,_ he thought to himself with a wince. “Which was really, really dumb of me,” he concluded regretfully.

“It really was,” Hyde agreed, but there was a bit more sparkle in those eyes again, and Eric felt his spirits raise with that.

He really wanted to kiss her again.

“I really want to kiss you again,” his voice was barely above a murmur, shivering on each syllable.

Hyde stared at him with one eyebrow cocked, but a smile on her lips. “Of course you do, Forman. I’m fucking amazing at it.”


End file.
